A Day in a Life
by AlwaystheCatLady
Summary: An adventure with Crookshanks before Hermione adopted him.


A Day in a Life

Team: Chudley Cannons

CHASER 3: Write from a pet's perspective about an adventure.

Optional Prompts: (location) Eeylops Owl Emporium, (dialogue) "Who's a good boy/girl?", and (sound) bark or mew.

Word Count: 1,345

"Oh, look at you! What are sweetie. Who's a good boy? Are you a good boy?" a young girl in pigtails cooed, pushing her candy-coated fingers into the small cage that the shop owners had forced the half-cat, half-Kneazle into calling home.

He pulled back into the corner, his lip curling to reveal his sharp canine teeth. The girl's mother glanced right back at there right at that moment and gasped.

"Get away from that beast Marietta," she demanded, placing a hand on her small shoulder.

Marietta pouted. "But I want a kitty." She wiggled her fingers a bit, begging him to come closer.

"There are others over here that would be more…appropriate for you and our family," the woman said, the familiar disgust in her eyes that many potential customers had when they looked at him.

He felt his fur rise, and he hissed as the girl's nasty fingers swiped his fur. Just as he was about to lunge forward, to bite, the girls mother pulled the girl from his cage, causing so much commotion that The Evil Incarnate, Jacob, rushed over apologizing profusely to the woman and her daughter.

"I'm so sorry Madam Edgecombe," he said, half bowing. "Crookshanks," here he shot him an ugly glare. Crookshanks hissed again. "is the most volatile of the shop. We simply can't get rid of him. But we have much more agreeable kittens over here if you'll let me show you."

Edgecombe sniffed with her nose tilted to the ceiling. "And I would hope they are much better looking than _that_ thing."

Crookshanks settled down as the three swept away from his cage. He licked one of his paws and licked it before wiping at the fur the girl had touched. Almost against his will, the right side of his mouth curled up revealing one sharp canine. He was sick of this shop, sick of The Evil Incarnate that ran it, this small cage, and the various people that either tried to touch him without his permission or exclaimed in disgust when they saw his face.

It was time for another one of his little adventures.

Knowing that the Edgecombe's would come over with their new, cute little purchase once more before leaving the shop and The Evil Incarnate would want to scold him for defending himself, Crookshanks circled the cage once before laying down, positioning his fluffy tail just right so that it looked to the humans that he was asleep.

Sure enough, the little girl, Marietta, was carrying a mewing pure white kitten cooing the same inane, "Who's a good boy?" while her mother was glaring with a sense of superiority again at Crookshanks's seemingly sleeping form. The Evil Incarnate smiled happily while taking all their Galleons. And sure enough, as the little bell rang as the two witches left the shop, The Evil Incarnate walked over to Crookshanks.

"You almost lost me a customer again," he snarled. "If this happens again I swear we will get rid of you."

It was an empty threat. Crookshanks had been here for many seasons and had watched some truly disruptive animals get the same threats. The owners have never gone through with any of them. They didn't want to lose any money, and these animals always get owners eventually. Crookshanks would too, once a worthy owner entered the store. It just hadn't happened yet.

Crookshanks yawned and stretched out his body in a nice, long stretch to show The Evil Incarnate just what he thought of his threat.

"Bah." The Evil Incarnate shook his head and headed toward the back room.

"Meow."

Crookshanks shook his head and stood up. He glanced at the clock on the wall. The two hands were straight up. Perfect. He stretched bonafide this time with claws stretching out slowly.

The bell rang.

He looked through the windowed store front. A flash of white wings disappeared as The Evil Incarnate came back into the store. He frowned as he saw no one and moved toward the door. The bell rang once more as The Evil Incarnate opened the door to peer outside.

"Damn kids," he muttered as he got out his wand to put a doorstop to keep the door open in a familiar ritual.

Crookshanks watched idly as he went back into the backroom, and, as soon as he was gone, a white owl flew into the shop and landed in front of Crookshanks's cage. With her beak the owl carefully lifted up the lock and the cage door swung open.

"Meow." Crookshanks said his thanks as he jumped out and led the way out of the cramped pet shop.

On the busy street, Crookchanks tried to hug the wall as the owl flew high above the crowd. The first thing on the agenda was to get some better food. There was a smoky pub at the very end of the alleyway. All he had to do wait for someone to make the wall to disappear and then he was on his way to a nice tuna lunch.

Luckily as soon as Crookshanks was at the wall it disappeared, and the door was a simple nudge with Crookshanks's paw so that he could enter the pub with no one tripping on him. A faint hoot from his owl friend reminded him to bring some tasty meat back for her.

He slipped through people's legs and shot around behind the bar. He waited until the worker was distracted with a customer before running into the kitchen. The bald man was the only worker in the pub so Crookshanks didn't have to worry about anything unless the man came back.

Crookshanks jumped onto one of the counters where some food was laying. Picking carefully through the food, he ate his fill so that the worker wouldn't see anything amiss. Then, he went to the pantry and grabbed a bag a food between his teeth.

Getting out was as easy as getting in.

In an alleyway where the trashcans were, Crookshanks set down his bag. The owl swopped down and started pecking through her food. Crookshanks left her to it, his end of their deal done. They would meet up later.

It was his time to have some dessert.

The ice cream shop was small, but Crookshanks had no intention of going inside. There was plenty of tables outside. With the sun out, plenty of people occupied them. Humans were messy. All Crookshanks had to do was hang out underneath the tables and catch some drops.

After that, Crookshanks hung around some of the shops. There was the bookstore and the one with the brooms. Crookshanks enjoyed watching the comings and goings of the humans when he wasn't locked up.

The last place on his list of things to do is to go to where his owl friend lived. The place with many owls stunk much like his own place to live. It was noisy too yet much less crowded. His white owl swooped back inside with him, and he followed her to her own cage.

It was a white similar to her coat and much bigger than the other owls, and that reason was because of her small child that still lived with her. His friend was a proud owl, and even if it's been two years since she had given birth and hatched her egg, she still liked to have compliments on her little owlet.

"Mew. Mew," he said.

"Hoot. Hoot." She puffed up her chest and started to preen her daughter's hair. Her daughter tolerated her for the most part, but Crookshanks knew that soon she would be moved to her own cage and both of the owls would be put on sale.

With one last meow, Crookshanks took off back to his own pet shop. The sun was going down and soon The Evil Incarnate will be closing the door.

Crookshanks didn't have to worry. Just like the times before, he hopped up into his cage and settled back in for another night. Until next time he had an adventure.


End file.
